CERTAINTY

In the not-too-distant future, an orphaned, independent-minded 10-year-old girl targeted by the dark forces of Artificial Intelligence flees home and encounters people with important ties to her past.

An algorithm has predicted that within 30 days Kate Noland will either be killed or become a killer. With the support of her grimly unloving adoptive parents, sour local cops show up to implant her with a tracking chip. Counseled by her trusty AI toy, Zeno, a talking stuffed seal she takes everywhere, Kate heads toward what she hopes will be New York City. It was from there that her birth parents sent her to the Maine countryside for safety when the Stem-flu pandemic began decimating metropolises (soon to claim her mother and father). Now, as Kate heads south, nimbly escaping danger, her story intersects with the brutal murder of a genius designer of “nubots” and the disappearance of a rebellious 20-year-old “wirehead” (he plugs into the virtual Over World through a data port in the back of his skull). There are good robots, including socially assistive ones who look like pandas, and bad robots, in search of new ways to “destroy every human walking around the city.” The distinction between reality and simulation has gotten hazy—among the latest trends is the creation of “duplicates” of dead family members. Even they can disappear. Twelve Hawks’ latest dystopian effort can grow dense with details, but the author of the Fourth Realm Trilogy has a knack for keeping narratives hopping—even at their knottiest. A lively character in thought and action, Kate is one of the more appealing preteens to appear in recent dystopian fiction. And Zeno is never shy about stealing scenes.

Those who reject AI and those who embrace it will find much to enjoy here.